Disability Rights Advocate Sets Big Employment Goals

Disability rights advocate, People with Disability Australia has launched a campaign to create 200,000 jobs for people with disability.

People with Disability Australia has called for a commitment from all levels of Government, the community sector, and businesses to re-think disability employment and reach its national employment goal of 200,000 jobs for people with disabilities by 2023.

People with Disability Australia President Craig Wallace said nearly one million people with disability were not in the labour force, according to the ABS in March 2012.

“We are putting fresh ideas on the table to cut through the red tape, noise and confusion on this one. A big boost is achievable if we work hard, think big and join together”, he said.

“Australia is near the bottom of the OECD league tables for poverty and jobs while people continue to be left out of the community," he said.

"Australians with disability are skilled, productive, hard-working people who deserve a fair go."

“Almost one in five Australians has a disability and Deloitte Access Economics reported that Australia would increase its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by $43 billion if employment rates for people with disability were increased by one third,” Wallace said.

“A 10% increase in the labour market would mean an increase of between 191,000 and 203,000 jobs for people with disability.”

A petition on change.org reframes the debate with facts, ideas and solutions on people with disability and jobs in Australia.

"People with disability will not be silenced on this issue," Wallace said. 

"We need to recognise our collective failure on disability and jobs and start to turn things around through continuous innovation and some game changers."

Wallace said some of the barriers to employment that needed addressing were:

• Failure to capitalise on States, Territories and Local Government knowledge and innovation.
• A lack of support for people with disability to access education and training
• Attitudinal barriers of employers
• Low expectations within Disability Employment Services (DES)
• Financial disincentives to employment for people with disability
• Inaccessible transport and workplaces
• The continued segregation and exploitation of people with disability employed in Australian Disability Enterprises (ADE)